Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1887-04-30
BILL NYE
Two Prominent TarHeeI Citizens
Who Now Utilize One Monument Joined
In Death as They Were In Life.
Asaeville IN. o. Cor. to Boston Globe.

quently brings buck two prominent
men Of this State who have passed
away, but whose history was remarkable
in many ways. These men, though
thrown together almost constantly
throughout a long publ c life, differed
materially on many points. They lived
in each others society for years, and
now in death they are still united,
Under one monument IN quiet lit
tic cemetery in the great Tar Heel
State they lie together awaiting the day
when the sea shall give up its dead, and
when the gentleman with the cork leg
will be seen looking over the odds and
ends OF some old battlefield or the
backyard OF some medical college Tor
his other limb.
For more than half century these
men ate al the same table and slept on
the same couch, and yet they agreed
in nothing. They were bound together
by tie which death alone could dis
solve.
The indulgent reader has already, no
doubt, discovered that | refer to the
late gentlemen, Chang and Eng, better
known as the Siamese twins.
These men. like most Siamese people,
had their origin in Siam, foreign eoun-
try OF a bright red color on the map oil
Asia.
AS Siamese alone, or simply as twins,
the would have attracted little attention,
and even by combining the two and be-
coming Slamese twins they would have
died, poor, perhaps, but with connect
ing link which united the two at me
base OF the breast-bone, they succeeded
in acquiring large iurtune.
They have proved beyond doubt
] think, that genius can not be acquired
Itisa gift. II comes notwith the seek
ing.
had little Changie and Engie gon'
to school regularly all through then
earlier years and studied with all thel1
might, it could got have fitted them To-
the life they afterwards led, or caused
them to attract the attention OF th'
whole world.
Nature does not fit every man to b.
a Siamese twin. Science can not AK
him in becoming one in after years
Close study and application can not a.
sist him.
TO be a successful twin involve
promptness also. 1t is u matter tina
can not be postponed. And to be
successful Siamese twin involves eve
greater difficulties.
Chang and Eng were raised up
meet q certain demand. The crisl
came. and they were taken there
meet it. They came at time when til
IN, Af hi1
twins united at the sternum by mean
OF light yellow, tirst-mortgage bond.
But Chang and Eng were not happ
even with their great wealth and tn
fame they had acquired working an Ell
tirely new vein.
Nature, which united them so closeI.
had not given the same ideas IN
thoughts. They agreed on nothing,
is said.
One was Knight Of Pythias, viii
the other was Royal Arch Mason, az
the meetings were on the same evei
ings.
People who knew them said it W
painful to see the stronger OF the tv
pull the other twin away to Knigh
of Pythias meeting in which he felt l
interest, or snake him to revlv
when he wanted to 60 to color'
ball
A neiqhbor tells me that while Char
was Baptist and believed inimmersl'
Eng was a doubter, but had to go
with his brother and be miners
through hole in the ice.
One wanted to secede at the breakll
out OF the war, while the other want
to save the country intact and fig
under the starry banner free.
Those who will read the history
this strange brace OF cotlee-colored gt
tlemen will agree with me that, ev
though you strike the popular feeli
and secure the public approval as
freak of nature, it is not all sunshl
and gladness.
Chang and Eng, though bound
gether through life, could not ma
their wives live together in the sa
house even, and so they were co
PEELED to maintain separate estabi
ments and go from one to the OIL
trying to allay discord.
One of the twins was a good nj
while 1t Is. sad that the other was Il "
SUCCESSFUL 6lllilCl' III OhSS VI lNSbia
ton it is not yet fully settled how it
be arranged, and the question has
quently been raised since their de
whether they will or will not JON
visit the realms of the blessed and
snoring, sdueallng precincts OF
id.
presume there are men who h
pried into the future and know h
this is, but / am free to confess thi
am densely ignorant in regard to It,.
However it may he one thing is
tablished, and that is that the MAJ
of the Siamese twins has never ial
upon those who could successfully L
their places for SO long a period OF tt
and keep out competitors as they die
Carthage Mirror: Comptroller Pi